THIS week we feature another brave Redditch soldier who died in the First World War 100 years ago this week.
Acting Sergeant Wilfrid Slade was a member of the 219th Siege Battery, an artillery unit heavily involved in the fighting in Flanders.
Artillery was the number one killer in the war and by June 1917 the British had developed tactics of saturating the enemy frontline with artillery shells before advancing on foot.
This inevitably meant the Allied gun positions were targeted by the German in return making life for artillerymen incredibly dangerous.
Wilfrid was born in Feckenham in 1884, one of seven children born to Thomas and Sarah Slade.
The family is recorded at various addresses in Inkberrow, Sambourne and Feckenham.
By the 1891 census Thomas had died and Sarah was bringing up the family on her own.
Wilfrid became a schoolteacher at Feckenham School, and married Hilda May Ladds on July 28, 1910 at St Stephen’s Church in Redditch town centre.
By 1911 he is described as college trained, elementary and an assistant schoolmaster living in Flaxley Lane in Stechford.
It’s believed that before marrying Hilda he was already a member of the 8th Warwickshire Territorials, and was called up into the 219th in May 1916.
The 219th operated six inch howitzers, and an idea of the intensity of their firepower is given in the unit’s war diary.
This shows that, for example, in a 14 day period in April 1917 they fired more than 5,000 shells at the enemy.
His unit was engaged in the Battle of Messines in June before moving north to take over from the French near Nieuport near the Belgian coast.
Wilfrid was promoted to acting Sergeant on July 5 but on July 10 was killed in action.
He is buried in Coxyde Military Cemetery near Nieuport, Belgium alongside two of his fellow gunners who died the same day: Gunner Frederick William Mason Baker aged 44 and Gunner Percy John Dexter aged 31.
Hilda, who was living at 68 Edmund Road, Saltley by then, received £5-18 shillings from Wilfrid’s pay credits and after the war a war gratuity payment of £7-10s with a weekly pension of 16/3d.
He is remembered on the Feckenham memorial, Feckenham school memorial, All Saints Parishioners WW1 Roll of Honour in All Saints Church in Stechford and Stechford WW1 memorial Cross.
With grateful thanks to local resident Richard Pearce.
